TI’s new developer bait

By
04.23.2002 :: 7:41AM EST

Texas Instruments has just released a development tool built on its OMAP processor. The OMAP is an ARM-compatible processor that has already been chosen to power the next generation Palm handhelds. The Innovator Development Kit includes a full PDA with touch-screen, speakers, docking station, and headphones, and will be available soon for developers to write programs that will run on this chip with operating systems from Symbian, Linux, Microsoft Windows CE, and Palm OS. The deluxe kit includes a break-away device that reveals the internal parts, allows expansion, wireless and wired connectivity, and PS/2 ports for keyboard and mouse. I wonder what this will do to the handheld world? If Microsoft ports Windows CE to the OMAP that would make things very interesting–building part of a bridge between Palm and Pocket PC. I would like to be able to purchase handheld operating systems the way I purchase desktop operating systems. I would love to have Pocket PC 2002 on my Zaurus! Check out the press release, and thanks to Pocket PC Newswire for the link.

USER COMMENTS 4 comment(s)

Unbundled Handheld OS(9:49am EST Tue Apr 23 2002)I agree. I would much prefer Linux or Symbian on my Visor (if only they supported the Dragonball. . .). For that matter, I'll also take an ARM-based Visor, while you're at it. . .) – by Aaron

This already happened(7:42pm EST Tue Apr 23 2002)“If Microsoft ports Windows CE to the OMAP that would make things very interesting”

WinCE supports ARM-compatible processor, OMAP is ARM-compatible, therefore no “porting” is necessary. Prime example: HP WDA928. It is using the OMAP platform, not StrongArm. – by anon

Aaron – you've got it a bit twisted(9:08pm EST Tue Apr 23 2002)Why on earth would you want to run any OS on the ancient Motorola DragonBall? DragonBall is on its deathbed. Palm lost a lot of momentum by relying too long on the DragonBall rather than porting Palm OS to ARM-based processors.

You buy a Palm, Visor or Clie because of the Palm OS, not for the DragonBall. If you want Linux or Symbian, you will never see them running on that 16-bit chip. ARM processors are going to own >90% of the PDA market by the end of 2003. – by Dick O. Stone

I'm not sure what you mean by ARM-compatible. The OMAP chips are essentially a mixture of an ARM9, a DSP (C55) and a set of I/O functions. In other words, it is an ARM plus some extra bits.

With respect to the WDA928, my understanding was that it had both an OMAP 710 (the GSM/GPRS modem) and a StrongARM (the application processor).

TI offers several OMAP chips: the 710 (somewhat unique in that it is a modem), and the 1510 (which is meant to be an application processor like the StrongARM). There is apparently a third chip, a 310 but I don't know much about it. – by Norm